Balanced use of he and she

Re question 1 - I have no idea as I don't read many scientific articles or technical articles. From the few I do read they tend to be from Government departments or agencies. They don't use either he or she but rather a gender neutral type term such as 'they' or 'the user' (rather than 'he' or 'she'). Sometimes it's clumsy and I would prefer they did use a gender but accept they won't. I'm not sure what's normal in other countries or industries though.

Yes, I is capitalised.

I think gender-neutral 'they' is by far the best option, although many prescriptivists object to it (despite the fact that it has been used for many years - centuries? - by well-respected writers).

BTW, while I'm here, is "I" capitalized in the middle of a sentence (e.g. "I think I should go")? I don't know where I got that from: maybe I made it up...

As long as "I" refers to the first person, it is always capitalized, no matter where it appears in a sentence.

"I think I should go, shouldn't I?"

Some authors will do that gender-balance thing, but I see it more in non-scientific writing, or perhaps writing about a technical subject that is aimed at a non-technical audience.

If I were writing a technical article, I'd write something like "when typing the command -foo-, the user expects output -bar-". Or "when they type the command -foo-, users expect output -bar-". If my audience were non-technical, I might write "when you type the command -foo-, you expect output -bar-". Another possibility is "when he/she types the command -foo-, the user expects output -bar-".

All of those are a bit awkward sounding, however, and it has nothing to do with gender. I'd prefer to put the noun first and the pronoun second, and I'd add a the in front of "output.".

"when the user types the command -foo-, she expects the output -bar-".
"when users types the command -foo-, they expect the output -bar-".
"when the user types the command -foo-, he/she expects the output -bar-".

#2 -- "they" won't always work. Suppose you're describing what happens in a trial.

The judge rules on objections. They may call the attorneys for both sides to the bench for a conference out of the hearing of the jury.

No, it won't do. It seems to me that in legal writing these days judges are always "she" and criminal defendants are always "he" which I guess is a form of balance.

"Every one to rest themselves betake." Shakespeare

You might find this of interest, OP.

Oh, c'mon, Vinny. It's easy

Judges rule on objections. They may call the attorneys for both sides to the bench for a conference out of the hearing of the jury.

or

The judge rules on objections and may call the attorneys for both sides to the bench for a conference out of the hearing of the jury.

or

The judge rules on objections. The judge may call the attorneys for both sides to the bench for a conference out of the hearing of the jury.

(Although I have to add that on the one trial where I was a juror, I actually felt compelled to notify the bailiff that the sidebars were not out of the hearing of the jury.)

nutrax, I'm thinking of the kind of thing that they say to prospective jurors, sometimes in a film. The plural won't really work there, where you're trying to describe what the jurors will see if they're on a panel.

Yes, you can keep repeating "the judge". Indeed, we don't really need third-person singular or plural pronouns at all; since after all third-person singular or plural pronouns just stand in for nouns, so you could just keep repeating the nouns instead of ever using third-person singular or plural pronouns.

And now that VinnyD thinks of it, VinnyD is not sure that the people VinnyD is addressing and VinnyD need first-person and second-person pronouns either.

And now that one thinks of it, one is not sure that the people one is addressing and oneself need first-person and second-person pronouns either.

That's pretty awful, one must confess.

My personal objection to the alternate gender approach is that it sounds forced. Oh dear. I need to show some gender balance here and I hate the use of "they" and "them" so I'll just randomly assign "he" and "she."

I rummaged around a few "what to expect as a juror" web pages. Generally, jurors, attorneys, plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses, are plural. Lots of "he or she" usage. The do indeed repeat "the judge" a lot.
>If the judge agrees with an objection the judge will “sustain” the objection. If the judge considers an objection to be incorrect the judge will “overrule” the objection and the jury will be allowed to consider the evidence. The judge’s ruling does not indicate favor for one side or one lawyer over the other. The rulings reflect only the judge’s determination of whether the questions asked are in proper form and which evidence may be considered by the jury under the rules of evidence.